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Ideology/Recurring Themes in King of Hill
King of the Hill has many episodes that deal with themes relevant to backwater Texan living. The Hill family, being an extremely right and conservative family serve as a vehicle for normal rightism. Dale Gribble believes in numerous conspiracies, making he and his family naturally libertarian. This political right and sometimes right libertarian vehicle is barraged with conflicting thought parties throughout the series. The battle of the generations Hank, relative to Bobby, is a totally different species generation-wise. Hank believes strongly in masculinity and men winning bread. Bobby just wants to be himself, which happens to be the opposite of what Hank wants in a son. "That boy ain't right". -Hank Hill Hank despises the new generation and the way it's going. He believes that society as a whole is going soft and spineless, which he believes is taking its toll on Bobby. Bobby has many atypical and feminine behaviours for a tweleve year old boy (in backwater Texas), such as listening to boy bands, dancing to girly music and collecting Troll Dolls. This behaviour is a constant source of disappointment and angst for Hank. In Husky Bobby, just prior to the Little Junior Plus fashion show, which boasts "Clothes for the new Millenium" Hank Hill furiously forces Bobby to leave. When Dooley and the other teenagers pelt the show with donuts, Hank doesn't even chastise them for bullying, but writes them off as "human nature". The fashion show arguably represents the common generation Y acceptance of weaknessess, and Hank being the baby boomer he is, believes that it's not in society's nature to be that open-minded and forgiving. In Hank's Bully, Hank is confronted by the child of a younger couple who believe in yell-free parenting. The boy, Caleb, runs totally amok, and when Hank takes it upon himself to discipline him by taking his bike, Caleb calls the police. Caleb's parents discount this as him having a "wild sense of imagination". At the end of the episode, Hank finally coerces the parents into sternly ordering Caleb to stop destroying Hank's lawn. The episode can be interpreted as illustrating that though the children of today can shirk consequences by depending on one-size-fits-all faculties such as the law, the government and education, discipline must reach them in the end or they can do totally the wrong thing, which must come from non-synthetic intimate social parties such as parents. Relevant episodes: *Husky Bobby *Hank's Bully *Bobby Slam *Nearly all "Bobby and Hank" episodes. Effemininity and the decline of boys Bobby is a feminine boy, and again, Hank believes that it is the current generations fault that young men and boys are growing that way, which he takes great disdain to. "Face it Hank, women are getting stronger and men are growing more effeminate. In the future both men and women will visit the gynecologist's, but only women'll be getting their money's worth. ''-Dale Gribble Because King of the Hill illustrates far-rightism as "the good guys" for its comedic purposes, the episode The Boy Can't Help It aims to dismantle young effeminism. In it, Bobby's feminine behaviour reaches a peak when he is the subject of manipulation to a group of girls. Even Peggy can't bring herself to accept his behaviour. ''*Looking conflicted* "This is perfectly acceptable beha-... Sigh. I'm sorry. I honestly tried." -Peggy Hill Relevant episodes: *The Boy Can't Help It *Nearly all "Bobby" episodes. Gluttony and Obesity The gluttony of the two main fat characters, Bobby and Bill, has been to cause for some chaos. Hank has been shown to make fun of fat people in his teenage years, which contributes to his disappointment in his son. Bill's obesity is due to his damaged mental state following his divorce, which has eroded his self-restraint. Texas at the time of writing is the tenth fattest state in America, but was much higher in the past during the time of King of the Hill's canon. Relevant episodes: *Husky Bobby *Trans-Fascism *The Fat and the Furious *Revenge of the Lutefisk *Love Hurts and So Does Art *Dia-BILL-ic Shock Narcissism The show's main ego-driven character, Peggy, has a little problem with her view of reality because of her mentally-abusive mother. This leads her wanting and eventually developing an anti-social narcissism or elite narcissism in her early adulthood to adulthood years. The show also deals with the nature of narcissism and how it ties into self esteem, ego, confidence, and assurance of the correct way of one's life, and how it can thrive when these aspects of one's personality goes unchecked along with a failure to recognize one's actions and the world around them as life goes on. Relevant episode: *Mostly all "Peggy" episodes "No one is perfect" King of the Hill can be seen as a more "mature" and "realistic" interpretation of the animated societal commentary and satire that was helped brought to life with its predecessor, The Simpsons. While the characters from The Simpsons have been known to be fleshed out and given depth as their own person, they are also intended as caricatures to be used as figureheads for its direction of commentary on current day events. King of the Hill does utilize its cast as caricatures, but more so as relatable individuals given more human depth with their own individual traits as their own person, and as such, their good and bad aspects of their personalities that come with it. In turn, it should be noted that a lot of one note characters are made with a more caricature aimed angle in mind, as done akin to one shot single appearance characters found in more traditional live action sitcoms, and are used to help communicate its episode's themes. As such, no one character is presented in a way that is overly idealistic unless they are needed to resolve the story's conflict in a more heroic fashion, and with good reason. In example, Hank is both a figurehead of both the good and bad of unyielding old fashioned traditional American values into the modern day, or at least in the late turn of the 20th Century. He is hardworking, devoted, hardnosed and well principled, patriotic, levelheaded, trustworthy, and an exceptional community figure who is the most stable of his friends, and believes in the value of hard work, honesty, and perseverance. In turn however, Hank is not without his flaws or emotional baggage; he has had a very rough and almost at times abusive upbringing by a rowdy and womanizing war forged father who rarely if ever praised his son in his youth, is still scarred by his loss of a critical championship game when he played high school football, driving him to be emotionally distant and composed to an almost stalwart degree, and suffers from mild but a multifaced yet understandable inferiority complex rooted from both. For what he falls short at, Hank has been known to be naive to the fault of being taken advantage of, almost overbearing on his son to where many question if Hank wishes to merely mold Bobby into him, very socially conservative to where he has been mistaken as intolerant and ignorant, and with a stubbornness that seems to invite life to get Hank to learn "the hard way" in order to open up his worldview at times. Still, Hank always does what he can to fix his mistakes and owe up to them, works through tough and dangerous situations to see them resolved through to the end, and only wishes the best for his loved ones to represent and do good for their community. Political Balance Granted, King of the Hill is not merely a "pro right wing/anti left wing" or vice versa show. Series creator Mike Judge has long been known for creating works with a depth of interpretation that helps encompass many different viewpoints and walks of life, and to use extremes of characterization to help drive home a balanced message that all can relate with and take something from it. Notable examples *''Huh?, an animated short by Mike Judge done in 1991 *''Beavis and Butthead - As much as the show is comedy and unadulterated crude humor, as well as music video commentary, there is plenty of social commentary going on behind the scenes Category:King of the Hill Wiki